Great Sign
4th Sunday of Advent (A)
What is the greatest possible thing God can do? Isaiah poses this experiment to King Ahaz, asking him to think of a sign from God, “higher than the highest heavens, and deeper than the netherworld below the earth” (Is 7:11).
It would be interesting to see what people would come up with as their answer; or whether most people, like King Ahaz, will give up after a little while and refuse to answer because they truly cannot imagine what that could be.
Isaiah therefore tells King Ahaz what God will do, something so unimaginably great it cannot be guessed. He says “the virgin will conceive and bear a son” (Is 7:14). This seems a bit anti-climactic. It is a true that every human soul is a miracle bigger than the rest of the cosmos, but babies are conceived all the time in the course of nature. By itself, that cannot the sign.
The focus of Isaiah’s prophecy is the word “virgin.” The original Hebrew word signifies a young maiden who when married is a virgin, but it does not imply continuation as a virgin. However, when the Hebrew theologians translated the Scriptures into Greek at Alexandria (“Septuagint”), they used the Greek word “parthenos” to highlight the significance of the young woman’s lifelong virginity, stressing that Isaiah prophesied a son being conceived in virginity, without the man.
This is indeed something great, far surpassing the power of nature. There are examples of women conceiving children in impossible circumstances, such as Sarah who conceived Isaac in extreme old age (Gn 17:15-17), but no one would imagine a child being conceived without a man. Christians treasure this prophecy of Isaiah, and forever honor the great thing God has done through the Blessed Virgin Mary, a miracle exalted to the highest heavens in her coronation as Queen of Heaven, and honored in the depths of hell through her crushing the head of the serpent.
But there is still a problem with this interpretation of Isaiah’s prophecy. It is not wrong, but it is not enough. The virginal conception of Jesus is a fact, and a great sign, but the sign is only for believers. It is a not a visible sign for the whole world. This sign of virginity is actually completely hidden from the world.
Only Mary knows this sign directly, only she experiences this miracle. Everyone else, including her husband-to-be Joseph must learn of it, and accept it through faith and the ministry of angels (Mt 1:20).
When Joseph first encounters the great sign – the virgin conceiving a son – he can only assume that the Law has been broken. Being an upright, just, and righteous man, all he knows is that he can no longer marry Mary, and must end the betrothal. He will not shame her by publicly accusing her of adultery, but he cannot marry her. Without a special revelation and faith, there is no way to know of the great miracle of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity.
There is therefore more to the prophecy of Isaiah, and it is found in the second half: the child to be born “shall be named Emmanu-el” (Is 7:14). The Gospel of Matthew explains (in Greek) that this sacred Hebrew sobriquet means “God-with-us” (Mt 1:23). The sign from God is not so much the virginal conception, as it is the baby himself. The virginal conception is necessary because of the child to be born. The child does not have a human father, because the child has a divine Father. It is a virgin who conceives in her virginity, because the child pre-exists his human conception. Who is this child? Isaiah tells us he is “God-with-us”; he is God, among us.
What is the great sign from God, higher than the heavens and deeper than Sheol? It is this: the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God and Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, through Whom all things were made, for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
Jesus, born at Bethlehem 2022 years ago, is a real historical person, visible to the whole world. His words and deeds, as well as his crucifixion and death, are public record. His divinity is manifest through his miracles, and above all his Resurrection continues to be a living reality in the Church.
By not answering Isaiah, King Ahaz perhaps gives the correct response to the question. Any human proposal would fall short of God, and no created intellect would ever guess His mind. The mystery of the Incarnation which we celebrate at Christmas continues to elude our grasp. As we humbly kneel before the manger, we join with Mary, Joseph, the angels and shepherds and wise men, and even with the animals, in awe-struck wonder at what has taken place. The virgin has conceived and born a son. He is named “Jesus” for the world, but his deeper name is Emmanuel.